Never before has mankind had so much access to news and information. And yet, never in history has the threat to freedom of information been so great.
Apart from the physical threat of violence to journalists from Malta to Turkey to Russia and China, to mention only a few, the proliferation of technology has led to new threats; both seen and unseen.
From the most obvious risks, like hacking and restriction of access to online sources of information to the sinister deep fake – in simple terms, the manipulation of video footage to very convincingly depict someone saying or doing something which in reality the person never did.
Deep fake is still in its infancy but has the potential to sow discord and tension, if not outright violence unless it is immediately tackled.
This is nothing really new, however. The current polemic and disagreements on climate change has its roots during the Cold War when Soviet propaganda arguably exaggerated the effects of the Western world’s industrial development on the environment, inviting heavy rebuttals.
There have been various instances around the world where shabbily filmed videos portraying some sort of shocking incident led to violent revenge
This can be observed in certain harmless videos that are circulated on social media sites. To the trained eye, it is easy to see when the whole scene is a set-up, and yet, the footage still goes viral worldwide, accomplishing the initial aim of its creators.
Hand in hand goes the now commonly used label of “fake news”.
Today, the term is more often than not conveniently used by the person who wishes to see the truth obfuscated.
“Fake news” often rubber-stamps everything one disagrees with, dumping the valid together with the false leaving far reaching consequences for readers who are left in constant doubt about what they are reading. The real victim is truth itself.
